Behind Closed Doors: Asleep in New England

“What pains we take with our beds, robbing the nests of birds & their breasts – this shelter within a shelter…”

Henry D. Thoreau, Journal, Winter 1846

People spend approximately one third of their lives in bed, a simple fact reflected in the rich variety of household objects related to sleep and associated practices. What goes on behind the closed doors of the bedroom raises interesting questions of privacy, health, comfort, intimacy, status, and fashion that can be explored through objects as diverse as feather beds and cradles, nightgowns and high chests, coverlets and coffins.

While the rhythms of life from birth to death remain unchanged over centuries, domestic spaces and practices changed a good deal from the 17^ththrough the 19^th century. In response to factors ranging from prosperity and poverty, family size and advancing age, technological innovation, and the severity of seasons, the bed – that shelter within a shelter that Thoreau wrote about – has seen many variations.

The exhibition, on view at the Concord Museum from October 10, 2014 through March 22, 2015, was organized by Concord Museum Consulting Curators Jane and Richard Nylander.  Dressing tables, necessary chairs, washstands, high chests, coffins, cradles, and adult cradles from the Concord Museum’s decorative arts collection and from the collections of Historic New England, Old Sturbridge Village, and other New England institutions were on display.

This on-line exhibition takes you Behind Closed Doors and brings together new material for an extraordinary experience. LEARN how to make a bed in the 18^th century; EXPLORE surviving objects and important bed hanging restoration projects; DISCOVER new research about sleep, then and now.